Plan to save lives in L Victoria is short of funds — LVBC boss

Dr Ally-Said Matano is the executive secretary of the Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC). The institution is mandated to coordinate sustainable development and management of the Lake Victoria Basin (LVB) in the five partner states.

He spoke with the Star on a wide range of issues, including the Maritime Communication and Transport Project that aims to tackle the 5,000 deaths a year on the lake.

THE STAR: How has Covid-19 impacted programmes and projects coordination and implementation in EAC Partner States.

MATANO: Covid-19 essentially has crippled inter-state movement, meetings and even field supervision missions. Some of the projects are supported by international experts, who have since retreated to their countries. As such, we have witnessed slow implementation of most of our projects and programmes.

What is the status of implementation of the Maritime Communication and Transport Project and what challenges have delayed it?

This has been one of the most challenging projects at the LVBC and yet a very critical initiative for two reasons. First, it focuses on saving lives from accidents and incidents in the lake, whose death toll is about 5,000 people annually.

Secondly, navigation in Lake Victoria is one of the highs that shall drive the LVB to achieve its full status of becoming a regional economic growth zone. As a matter of fact, lake transport is more critical now than ever, especially with the challenges being faced in the management of road transport, especially for goods in transit.

Despite challenges in coordination and implementation, some positive movement has been witnessed in the last one year in the participating countries. Uganda, for instance, has undertaken a number of nationally implemented activities, including support for hiring of a regional project coordinator. At the regional level, a number of statutory as well as consultative meetings have been convened to address policy as well as operational challenges.

The fundamental challenge regarding this project is first on the mode of funding. This project, unlike other projects coordinated by the LVBC, which are grant-funded, is [reliant on] bilateral loans between the African Development Bank and participating Partner States of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Secondly, it is designed as a regional project that naturally requires coordination of the three states, and this is where the LVBC comes in. The funding for the regional coordination, nonetheless, has been a challenge. As a way forward, the African Development Bank is undertaking a mid-term review to address these challenges.

Floods have caused loss to livelihoods in Kisumu and other lake regions. What can be done to mitigate such events?

First, it is important to understand the cause of floods in the East African region. These were mainly caused by unprecedented rainfall, which started from October 2019 and continued up to June 2020. Climate change, of course, cannot be ruled out as the cause of the unprecedented rainfall.

The result of the increased rainfall was the floods that caused havoc upstream and downstream of the Basin. The mitigations against regular floods in the region, especially on the Kenyan side of the Basin, which is 22 per cent of the Lake Victoria watershed of 184,000 square kilometres, must take into account a number of factors: the topography, the land use systems, the population and the drainage system, and in the background, the climate change risks.

Based on these factors, strategies to mitigate against flood must be in the short-term: rehabilitation of dykes, relocation and improvement of holding grounds in case of floods; medium-term: re-demarcation of protected/riparian zones based on highs in the lake levels and the riparian zones, policy formulation on floods and drought management; and finally, long-term: watershed rehabilitation and review of spatial plans in the wake of climate change.

You are a proponent of hydro-diplomacy as a technique for managing inter-state differences. How can this be operationalised to resolve the Migingo Island issue?

Actually I am a proponent of eco-diplomacy, which also includes water/hydro-diplomacy. This is based on my long experience in the management of shared ecosystems in the region, such as Mt Elgon ecosystems (Kenya/Uganda), the transboundary Mara ecosystem (Kenya/Tanzania), the shared Kibira-Nyungwe ecosystem (Rwanda/Burundi), and of course, Lake Victoria ecosystems.

The most difficult part of diplomacy engagement is the basis for a “dialogue sitting” of potentially or already conflicting parties. Ecosystems in distress often offer the best basis for dialogue sitting. This sitting can then be up-scaled to address other potential areas of conflicts.

Through eco-diplomacy, the commission has successfully developed strategies and plans for management of some of the potentially “conflict” ecosystems. We already have an operational framework for management of transboundaries in the region. All these required lots of discussions and negotiations, where eco-diplomacy played a key role.

The issue on Migingo Island, which is a miniature ecosystem, is very much administrative because it’s based on the resource use — fish, which is a mobile resource within an invisible border set-up.

What may be required is first putting mechanisms to ensure fish as a tradable good is handled within the existing EAC Protocols (Custom Union and Common Market), and then a clear sensitisation of fishermen on the international borders. The common concerns are mainly international border-related, where Kenyan fishermen allege arrests in either Uganda or Tanzania after crossing into those countries at times undeliberately, “chasing the fish resource”.

Key strategic priorities you had set to achieve in your term included leaving LVBC with its own office, and enactment of the LVBC Bill. How far have you gone in these targets?

When the commission relocated to its headquarters in Kisumu in 2007, the Government of Kenya donated a prime piece of land (currently valued at Sh65 million) in Kisumu for the putting up the headquarters.

It was not until 2018 that we managed to have the Council of Ministers grant the commission funding for the first phase of the construction. The delay was because it was to be drawn from the reserve fund. However, the commission now has the funds and the procurement process is at an advanced stage. It is anticipated that the ground breaking could be done in October this year. By June 2021, before I exit, we should be on site.

The other key priority has been the enactment of the LVBC Bill. This had initially started in 2007 but then stalled due to the fact that certain provisions of the then LVBC Bill (2007) were inconsistent with the treaty establishing the East African Community. We revisited the enactment in 2018 after several consultations with the chair of the Standing Committee on Agriculture, Tourism and Natural Resources and the process restarted.

So far, the first reading has been done as well as public consultations. Were it not for Covid-19, the second and third reading would have been done. Gladly, this is among the key Bills lined up for consideration by the East African Legislation Assembly.

The deal signed between Tanzania and Kenya had set key conservation milestones to be achieved by two EAC Partner States. What does the scorecard look like?

The Memorandum of Understanding was mainly to provide a framework for sustainable management of water resources in the Mara River ecosystem, which is shared between the two Partner States. In my opinion, the first milestone was having the two countries sign the MoU. This was after several discussions and negotiations on the same.

The second milestone was establishment of the Mara Day, which was operationalised on the basis of the MoU. Mara Day has created a platform for stakeholders in the two Partner States to discuss on matters and issues that relate to this world-renowned ecosystem. As a matter of fact, this is a classic example of people-centred regional integration at play.

Thirdly, within the framework of the MOU, other partners, such as Sustainable Water Partnership (SWP), got an anchorage and on the key output of the SWP is the ongoing initiative of developing a Water Allocation Plan for the Mara River Basin.

The Lake Victoria Environmental Management Programme Two (LVEMP II) never transitioned to LVEMPIII, to the displeasure of Kenya and other EAC Partner States. What transpired? Should we expect its renewal?

I think as EAC, we greatly appreciate the support that the World Bank and other partners contributed toward the first-ever regional programme to address comprehensively the myriad of challenges in the LVB.

First was the LVEMPI (1997-2005), which focused on research and capacity building. Most of the studies that guided the framework for management of shared LVB, such as the Regional Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis, was a product of LVEMP I.

Further, most key scientists — water and environment experts — were trained under the LVEMP I. Such scientists include the current head of locust control based at Addis Ababa, as well as the current executive secretary of LVBC.

LVEMPII, on the other hand, focused on piloting interventions on sustainable land management, water pollution control as well as upscaling the Community Demand Development initiatives.

The transition to LVEMPIII had nothing do with performance of the previous phase but rather the changes in the new World Bank strategy for African and rationalisation of regional programmes at the World Bank, which saw many regional programmes dropped.

This does not in any way indicate withdrawal of commitment by the World Bank in supporting interventions in the region either bilaterally or otherwise. There is already an ongoing discussion on a programme for the great lakes, in which the LVB is an integral part.

Of course there were concerns from all the Partner States on the decisions, given that preparations for LVEMPIII were at the tail end and that countries had used their resources and made their commitments. However, this does not in any indicate a strain in relationship with the bank.

As matter of fact, the World Bank, in collaboration with the Nordic Development Fund, continue to support the initiative on enhancing the private sector in green growth. Already some of the Partner States are in bilateral discussion with the World Bank on LVEMP.

Once your term comes to an end mid 2021, what one thing will you be remembered for in EAC?

In terms of nomenclature, I shall remain the first Kenyan to head the great Lake Victoria Basin Commission of East Africa. I shall perhaps be remembered more by ensuring the commission is established by an Act of Parliament and has a home (LVBC headquarters), for having sourced funding for some key programmes that had direct impacts on the livelihood of the people, and for navigating the commission during one of the most difficult periods of unprecedented floods regionally and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Edited by T Jalio